Notes from the Field...

FOSS Comes To Clairview

By Christine Rendulich and Jaime Gregorich, Clairview School, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Students at Clairview School explore the FOSS Wood and Paper and Air and Weather Modules.

Clairview School, located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, offers a wide range of learning experiences that build upon the strengths of students with disabilities. This school year, FOSS has been introduced for the first time to the middle school and Secondary Life Skills programs. The FOSS kits are being used with students ranging in age from 11 to 21. The students’ abilities range from low to high intellectually challenged students mixed with those who have emotional and multi-handicapped needs. The middle school students are currently using the FOSS Air and Weather Module, while the secondary students are utilizing the FOSS Ideas and Inventions Module and also the Wood and Paper Module.

From the teacher’s viewpoint, the FOSS program has been easy to incorporate into the curriculum. The Teacher Guide directs the instructor through the investigations and, if there are questions regarding content, there is quick and easy access to the website or CD-ROM. The kits are also easily adaptable for the wide range of student abilities that are serviced within the Clairview School setting. The students are motivated and very eager to participate in class activities using this hands-on science curriculum. To date, the modules have proven to be very successful with our entire middle and secondary school population. Students are excited to go to science class!

Ideas from Evansville

Here’s an e-mail we received a few months ago with some ideas for using FOSS materials.

As part of the New Plant Module, students planted potato eyes in donated cups.

I am a K–4 science specialist. We love FOSS kits. My fourth-grade students use Crayola Model Magic to create their own bess beetle for the Structures of Life Module. The beetle then sits on a foam meat tray, and the students label the body structures with a permanent marker.

My second-grade students planted eyes of potatoes for the New Plants Module in plastic cups donated by a local pizza franchise. The cups have two holes punched in the bottom so children won’t drink from them.

For the Earth Materials Module, I got champagne corks from a local wine shop for covering the points of the geologist tools (the nails). They have a bin for recycling corks and were very nice about letting me dig through the bin.

Best regards,
Soi Chong Powell
Primary School Science Teacher
Evansville Day School Evansville, IN
e-mail: spowell@evansvilledayschool.org

Evansville Day School students created models of bess beetles on foam meat trays.